Bolton: Gartside is starry eyed!

BOLTON'S European adventure will make it easier for Sam Allardyce to attract star quality to the Reebok Stadium. That is the view of Wanderers chairman Phil Gartside, who believes that the club's run to the last 32 of the UEFA Cup has put them on the football map at home and abroad.

BOLTON'S European adventure will make it easier for Sam Allardyce to attract star quality to the Reebok Stadium.

That is the view of Wanderers chairman Phil Gartside, who believes that the club's run to the last 32 of the UEFA Cup has put them on the football map at home and abroad.

Bolton's memorable European run was only brought to an end by a narrow defeat against French aristocrats Marseille last week.

Gartside believes the UEFA Cup run has been the perfect answer to the club's critics, who he claims are jealous of their success.

He said: "We have gained respect from teams such as Marseille. People will have been reading about Bolton in the papers; it has not done our reputation any harm and it will be easier to bring players in.

"Gone are the days when Sam had to spend three days convincing a player to join us, everyone now knows who Bolton Wanderers are now.

"From a commercial point of view, our European experience has been successful. We have taken about é1.2m from television alone, which has been great."

The flipside of that success, Gartside believes, is that their Premiership rivals have become jealous.

Jealousy

He said: "Nobody likes us, but that's jealousy. When people complain about our style of play, that's because we are successful, it's not because they don't like our style of play.

"Liverpool thought we were great when they were beating us. Now they don't like us any more. People think we might beat them now, but that's the reality of the industry we work in, it is competitive.

"Arsene Wenger's body language gives the impression he doesn't like us and I am not surprised, because they have lost a lot of points to us."

But Gartside has no problem with the extra criticism, which he takes as a sign of how far Bolton have come. He added that the club have learned plenty from their Euro adventure.

He said: "It has opened our eyes to a different level of football. It makes you want more; it's infectious.

"We have learned a lot from a playing point of view. If you look at Joey O'Brien, Kevin Nolan and Ricardo Gardner, they have all upped their level of football.

The chairman says the club are now on a sound financial footing and have created a solid foundation to reach the next level.

He said: "We are not budgeting for relegation any more, we are budgeting to be in the top half of the Premiership and at times you pinch yourself when you see that."